New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for public beta-testing

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Brother against Brother: The Drawing of the Sword >> New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for public beta-testing

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New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for public... - 7/24/2015 6:03:11 PM

Gil R.

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I have attached a zip file with an unreleased scenario that needs a good amount of public beta-testing before it can become an official one. The scenario is the first two-day BAB scenario, and is intended only for two-person play, not A.I.

The idea behind the scenario is a simple one: whereas historically the Union's advance forces barely caught up with the CSA on May 4th and were unable to launch a real attack, leading to the true battle the next day, in this scenario the CSA has left behind most of a division so that it can block the USA's advance. The USA can't attack the rest of the army until it gets past this force, but won't have time to do that before sundown. So the first day should be devoted to fighting in the lower-right area (with most of the CSA army not able to move), but then at night both players can move about and prepare for a fuller battle the next day when the sun comes up. Please note that we have not yet programmed the rules we plan for overnight scenarios -- e.g., rules causing extreme fatigue if units march all night -- so you should make up your own house rules regarding how much movement is acceptable during the 2-hour overnight turns.

We would welcome your thoughts on this scenario. The biggest concern may be whether there is a problem with USA reinforcements showing up before the other units have gotten out of the way. As you know, there is not stacking in BAB, but when designing a scenario it is possible to put two units in the same hex, which should only be done if they appear at different times. This is the case with the road that the Union arrives on, so I had to be very careful to stagger times and locations so that units appearing in the same hex would never share it during the game. So please report problems with this. (One of our testers said there is an issue with Wainwright's artillery division. I haven't done anything about that because it would make sense to collect all such feedback before making changes.)

This scenario strikes me as the best for PBEM, other than the Manassas PBEM (and perhaps may end up better). So we'd like feedback from people who try it that way, but if anyone wants to test it out just playing against himself and provide feedback that would be welcome, too.

The final thing to note is that since historically the May 4th fighting mainly involved a CSA division under Lafayette McLaws that headed to Richmond afterwards and was not involved in the battle on May 5th we have had to add this division.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 7/24/2015 6:10:11 PM

zakblood

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thanks :)

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/3/2015 4:12:23 PM

Gil R.

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So... any thoughts?

I realize people might not want to commit themselves to a full PBEM game of a scenario that's only "beta," but it would be a great help if a few of you took the scenario out for a spin, perhaps playing just 5-10 turns, to see how it strikes you. I don't want to release it without more feedback, since it would not be good if we made it an official scenario and then lots of problems with it were discovered AFTER people had started real games. So, I'd welcome any feedback.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/3/2015 4:34:39 PM

zakblood

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only played a few turns, and then been doing other stuff, sorry, then forgot i started it and haven't been back since, sorry boss :(

i've been busy modding some stuff, but not really had much time to play or test atm :(

failed

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/5/2015 7:52:36 PM

Ironclad

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Installed it but keep getting assertion failed report and crash when I try to open it in single player.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/5/2015 8:43:23 PM

zakblood

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still need to test it, only tried a few turns in 2 player sorry

< Message edited by zakblood -- 8/6/2015 10:19:30 AM >

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/5/2015 9:04:58 PM

Ironclad

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Thanks although Gil mentions trying it in single player if a multiplayer opportunity isn't available.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/5/2015 9:33:52 PM

Gil R.

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Hmm. This is strange. When I say it should not be played as an A.I. game all I mean is that I didn't engage in any AI scripting, since I don't think the nature of our scripting system would work well for this scenario. (Maybe someday I'll try it, though.) So there's nothing that I can think of that should cause an error in single-player but not two-player. Ironclad, have you tried loading it as a hot-seat game and seeing how it works?

(As described in the modder's guide, our A.I. scripting is pretty simple, and involves sending units to certain parts of the battlefield at certain times IF they have nothing more pressing to do, and also tells them whether to be on defense or offense IF it is not obvious which they should be.)

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/8/2015 8:22:20 PM

Ironclad

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It must have been a faulty download - it gave an assertion fail also when I was setting up a multiplayer challenge. Have redownloaded it and can now open it in single player as well as the multiplayer.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/10/2015 4:20:47 AM

Gil R.

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Good to know. Thanks for the update.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/15/2015 5:15:52 PM

Ironclad

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An instance of double occupation occurred early in the game when the at start field artillery was being moved by road (accompanying infantry was either well ahead or going through the forest). When the first of the reinforcements arrived on the road the artillery disappeared only to reappear later when the occupying infantry was able to move off. A bit off putting but you had forewarned us although I was keen for the infantry to move to confirm the artillery was still there and lo it was! Of course it did delay the artillery for a turn or so until it could be accessed again but no big deal.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/15/2015 9:19:07 PM

Gil R.

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Yeah, that can happen. But if one gives one's artillery a long-range command, which makes sense for getting all those USA units over, it shouldn't be an enormous problem.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/16/2015 7:24:54 AM

Ironclad

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Yes I can see that's an option but as the road is not straight a long range command will lead to the artlllery straying off into the forest at certain points. A perfect opportunity for me yet again to repeat the advanatage of a group command which would allows units to automatically follow the marked path of the lead one.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/17/2015 5:50:11 AM

ericbabe

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I'm working on something similar to this

_____________________________

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 8/17/2015 7:21:55 AM

Ironclad

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Splendid, thanks.

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 9/2/2015 10:41:03 PM

doombat2000

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Trying to test out this scenario. What are the night rules and are those rules built into the logic of the scenario?

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RE: New Williamsburg 2-person scenario available for pu... - 9/4/2015 5:40:26 PM

Gil R.

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quote:

ORIGINAL: doombat2000

Trying to test out this scenario. What are the night rules and are those rules built into the logic of the scenario?

Well, once implemented the new night rules will be fatigue/morale-related, so that 1) units can't march all night without becoming exhausted when morning comes and without losing morale, and 2) units will have a greater chance at restoring their morale. So a good house rule for now would be simply not to move any units for more than one or two turns during the night, even if it is currently possible to move them all night. (Again, for those new to this issue, BAB#1 has no overnight battles, so we didn't include nighttime code. That will change for BAB#2, which will have a battle fought over two or three days.)

There is already code that makes night turns last longer (2 hours each, I think) and therefore provides far more movement points. That code was added so that the 1st Manassas 2-player scenario, which starts at 2:00 a.m., would work, and I'm pretty sure that it should be working for this Williamsburg scenario.

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Post #: 17

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